July 29, 1904 – The Kirksville, Missouri newspaper announces that Iowa City’s Emma J. Harvat is opening a new bookstore. She’ll return to Iowa City in 1913 and become Iowa City’s first woman mayor by 1922.

With the women’s right to vote going into effect in 1920, new opportunities came forward for women in politics across the country. In 1922, Emma J. Harvat became an international celebrity when she was elected as, not only Iowa City’s first female mayor, but the first woman mayor of a United States municipality with a population exceeding 10,000!

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